I saw a little bit of the Chappelle scrimmage and I came away very impressed with Isaiah White. He is the best athlete on the team as far as running, jumping and moving fluidly. Bryant is also a solid America East guard. Antoms seems to be lacking the aggressiveness needed to compete inside. He has a strong build but seemed tentative in the scrimmage and that may be why he received limited minutes against Husson? The player I am anxious to see is Duncan Douglas. He has been on the shelf with a foot injury, but he is a strong athlete who could help Maine defensively and on the boards.Dusan M. was held out of the scrimmage and has missed practice time with an injury. Some had high hopes for him and felt he would be a major contributor. At this point, I don't see him beating out guys like Er, Lowdnes and Evans for playing time.

Blind Zebra wrote:I saw a little bit of the Chappelle scrimmage and I came away very impressed with Isaiah White. He is the best athlete on the team as far as running, jumping and moving fluidly. Bryant is also a solid America East guard. Antoms seems to be lacking the aggressiveness needed to compete inside. He has a strong build but seemed tentative in the scrimmage and that may be why he received limited minutes against Husson? The player I am anxious to see is Duncan Douglas. He has been on the shelf with a foot injury, but he is a strong athlete who could help Maine defensively and on the boards.Dusan M. was held out of the scrimmage and has missed practice time with an injury. Some had high hopes for him and felt he would be a major contributor. At this point, I don't see him beating out guys like Er, Lowdnes and Evans for playing time.

Blind Zebra: Good to be back posting about basketball with you.

I agree with your post all except about Antoms.

I saw all his tapes from Lee Preppers that were posted here on MBR. He is young but showed aggressiveness in the tapes and was very strong inside offensively.

He should have gotten at least 20 minutes in the Husson Exhibition game instead of just 2 minutes.

Antoms is a far better offensive threat than Eze who after all is a red-shirt sophomore who looks like could be out for the year and without Eze Maine is small even for the 332nd ranked team in the 2017-18 PomeroyRPI Pre-season poll of the 351 D-1 teams.

They will have a tough time matching up with teams that have a good BIG on the block if Eze can't play and Antom doesn't get minutes.

They started 6'7", 6'6", 6'5" 6'1" and 6'0. Who is going to guard opponents BIGS? The 6'7"? He could easily be in trouble foul wise as he is a very aggressive player. He also played facing the basket all last year as they had Eze in the post. Could have to play more zone if they don't play Antoms at 6'9" 245lb.

Big men under this current regime have not been developed to their full potential. They are not used enough offensively on the block and they don't become involved in the inside-outside game to get higher percentage 3 point shots either.

They never have gotten enough touches to really be effective offensively either scoring or kicking out for the open three's when the double downs come.

If lack of aggressiveness is what kept Antoms from playing only 2 minutes, I have found that big men have a tendency to fall asleep on offense when they don't touch the ball on the offensive end. They have to get the defensive boards, kick it out and then run rim to rim and don't see the ball much except having to get the ball by offensive rebounding but that is hard to do when all those missed 3's bounce far "off the rim".

I say start Antoms and let him get the feel for the more aggressive D-1 game. Isn't that what non-conference regular season games are for. TO GET READY FOR CONFERENCE PLAY?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

He can't get better sitting on the bench.

But that is .....JMO.

MAINE NEWBIES PLAYED 74 OF THE 200 MINUTES AND SCORED 33 of the 84 POINTS. THE RETURNESS PLAYED 126 MINUTES AND SCORED 51 POINTS.

Glad to have you back on MBR posting about UMaine hoops.

You are one of the most knowledgeable posters on MBR when it comes to evaluating the 2 Maine basketball programs.

Coach, Antoms is nowhere near ready. He struggles with the speed and physicality of the D1 game. Hands are not great, gets pushed off the block very easily and has no counter moves. He has a long way to go before receiving significant minutes!

...“And second, expanding his game to the 3-point line. I watched high school games when he made five or six 3-pointers, and last year I think he made one (5 of 16 in 27 games). Being able to finish with both hands and being able to square up and make perimeter shots, if he can extend out to the 3-point line, big guys are going to have trouble guarding him.”

Fleming and his teammates hope to capitalize in a new offensive approach designed to create better spacing in the halfcourt.

“The change in offense in this year definitely helps,” he said, “not only for me to have more space but all the guys on our team. It puts us in better positions to create plays and ultimately get to the rim and score.”

The new offense is admittedly a work in progress, Walsh said. In the first half against Husson, for example, UMaine had 39 possessions but ran its new halfcourt set just six times.

duke11 wrote:Coach, Antoms is nowhere near ready. He struggles with the speed and physicality of the D1 game. Hands are not great, gets pushed off the block very easily and has no counter moves. He has a long way to go before receiving significant minutes!

duke11: What are exhibition games and non-conference games for? I play him at least 20 minutes per game and let him, improve on the job. They are going nowhere again if they don't have a decent inside outside game to get open threes. Without Eze available they will be in matchup problems with teams with a big. Fleming is not the answer in the post.

Just my opinion and of course you have a right to yours also. Opinions are like noses everyone has one. He played 2 minutes vs, Husson so unless you have seen him at practice I don't know where you got your criticisms of Antoms. I saw his tapes of Lee Preppers games from last year and he looked OK to me.